


I regret to inform you

by Yalu



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 11:38:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3445736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yalu/pseuds/Yalu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Hydra, Steve goes to Avengers tower to tell Tony about Howard's death. </p><p> </p><p>  <i>Bruce Banner. Steven Strange. Anyone who's a threat to Hydra.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	I regret to inform you

**Author's Note:**

> Oh. Look what I found on my hard drive.

Ms Potts, Steve thought, always seemed to know from just one look why he'd come to Stark Tower. Maybe even before she saw him; she was sombre before the elevator doors finished opening. 

"Tony's in his lab," she said. "I can get Bruce here in minutes if we need him."

_Bruce Banner. Steven Strange. Anyone who's a threat to Hydra._

Steve shook his head. "Not yet, ma'am. There's something I need to..." He closed his mouth and regarded her quietly. "He might need you for this."

Her brow knitted in worry and she started walking - fast - and waved him after her. "Jarvis, divert any incoming phone calls and put our texts on hold, please." She looked at Steve. "How bad is it?"

_Accidents will happen._

"I don't know."

She walked faster.

 

Steve had never seen Stark's lab, but it was about what he expected, and Stark was about what he expected, buried to his elbows in parts and welders, but there was a frantic edge to his movements that made Steve's throat clench. As soon as they came in he whirled around.

"SHIELD gone? Blew itself up? No not yours, that's your baby blanket or something. Seriously? Blown up? On the scale of subtle intelligence organisations, not that subtle. And just for the record, a complete waste of repulsor technology which was in _no_ way at fault there. I saw the tapes. Jarvis, pull up the tapes."

Jarvis, Steve noticed, didn't pull up the tapes. Tony was already past it.

"SHIELD was compromised, Stark. Hydra poisoned it from the beginning. You were right, it couldn't be trusted."

"See? See? Told you. And Fury never even-"

" _Tony_." Steve stepped forward. "Fury's a good guy. He didn't do this. But the ones who did-" He glanced at Ms Potts, wishing he'd told her first. 

Stark just sighed theatrically. "What is it, Capsicle?"

"They had your parents killed," said Steve. "I'm sorry."

Behind him, Ms Potts took a breath, and to one side, screens lit up and started speeding through files; pictures of Howard and his wife popped up, and lists of names and dates and bits of documents from Natasha's file dump. But Stark, Stark stayed still. His eyes darted every which way, then down.

"Yeah, okay. They do that. Evil spy killer people and everything- Why? Why would they-?"

"I don't know," Steve said again. He'd said that too many times lately. "They were a threat to Hydra. Natasha's looking into it."

"Oh great - a corrupt assassin spy from a corrupt intelligence agency is 'looking into it'."

Steve frowned. "She's angry about this too, Stark. We all are."

"Who? You and Nick Fury?"

"Tony," said Ms Potts, touching his arm, "we're _all_ angry."

Something moved in a reflection, and Steve turned to find Dr Banner behind them, looking sad and turning his glasses over in his hands far too quickly. Steve nodded to him; he returned it. 

Stark suddenly moved, wiping half a dozen screens clear and calling up new information. "What else you got?"

 

Quite a lot, it turned out. Steve methodically relayed everything he could, including details that meant little to him but a lot to the others, especially Jarvis, whose screens whirled with new data almost as soon as words left his mouth. It was half an hour before Steve realised: He was trusting these three people completely (four, he corrected, four 'people'), and he supposed, given how much of his world had just collapsed down to Natasha, Fury, Sam and Hill, that said more for them than a dozen speeches.

So he was kind of surprised to wind up his description of the riverbank he'd been found on to see Banner nodding sympathetically at the floor and Ms Potts looking startled. Stark was still again. 

"Your friend made it?"

Steve shrugged. "No one else could've pulled me out of there."

A picture of Bucky - old, just after he joined up - appeared on the screen, and a database of photos flew by past. 

"Do you know if the brainwash was programming or surgical? Different methods can be circumvented by the brain in different ways," said Dr Banner, fiddling. "He could remember you, he could remember parts of you, or he could just be hanging on to something that gives him hope of an identity. Without brain scans there's no way to be sure."

Steve nodded slowly. "I understand. Do you-" He bit his lip. "Do you think there's a chance?"

Stark shrugged. "Won't know till we find out. Jarvis, sweep facial recognition over every city cam and security network on the east cost. We'll hit west and central later. Guy with a metal arm - kind of hard to hide. Must be getting around security checks somehow - literally, no way those won't send off the beepers. Any idea what it's made of? Jarvis, gimme a list of anything we can search or scan for, we can get this guy- and by 'get' I mean 'find', dunno what then, Cap'll probably have to cry or do storytime for him..."

Ms Potts quietly stepped between Stark and the screens and took his virtual handset away. "I want you to show me the photo albums. Show me their wedding pictures."

He waved her off, busy tweaking code for the sweep. "You know where they are."

"Now." She turned off the screen and looked up. "Jarvis, you'll call us when you find anything, right?"

"Immediately," said the AI, and Steve would have bet Dodger tickets he was lying. Or at least that he'd find a reason to hold off for a while. A glance at Banner's almost imperceptible smile confirmed it, but Stark let himself be herded out without much fuss. 

("Seriously, now? I'm fine, you know I'm fine. They died years ago - I'm over it. Okay? Good, so long as we're clear.")

Banner chuckled quietly, then softened as he looked at Steve. "I'm sorry."

Uncomfortable, Steve shurgged. "I'm about as good at lying as Stark is, but will you believe me when I say I'm okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I do. I just wonder if you should be."

Steve looked to the door that had shut behind Tony. "Should any of us?"

Another slow nod, this one sadder. Banner turned his glasses over again, just once, then said, "Would you like some coffee? While we wait."

Something loosened in Steve's shoulders, and he smiled. "Thanks."

Bruce swept a hand towards the door, and he led the way.


End file.
